Staff Wars - Note Reading App Review

Every so often, I like to share an music education app that will help with home practice, and today, I'm sharing one that is sure to be a hit called Staff Wars. This will be especially helpful for students who are preparing for the upcoming Progressions evaluations, and we will be using it in lessons for the next month or so to help build their confidence for the written portion of the exam.

Staff Wars is a note reading app that can be played on an tablet or phone. It's set in outer space, and would be especially great for Star Wars fans, as the ship you are in looks remarkably like a public domain X-wing, and your objective is to shoot enemy notes out of the sky. 

As you get notes correct you will level up, and the notes will start moving quicker to increase the challenge. After your three lives are used up, the game is over, and you can play again, trying to improve on your last score. 

There are 2 ways to customize the notes you'll be trying to identify, especially for beginning or primer level students it will be important to include just the notes we've actually learned in order for the game to be fun. So when you open the app, you'll see this page asking you to 'Select Your Mission.' Choose the appropriate clef sign (for piano students this will be either Bass, Treble, or Both). 

Then you'll arrive at this page, and in the lower right hand side, you can adjust the range of notes to suit what we've learned, and any goal notes we are trying to improve on. 

Once you've set the clef & note range, hit the start button and when an enemy note shows up, tap it's name below the staff to shoot it down.

My only two minor caveats about this app are: 

1. That it drills only note names, and doesn't necessarily help students associate the note on the staff with a correct octave or register on the piano. There are plenty of other apps that do offer that kind of reinforcement (like Note Rush or Piano Maestro) if that is what your piano kid is needing.
2. It doesn't offer the option to practice with your acoustic or midi capable piano if you wanted to. I like to be able to connect the notes on the staff to the actual keyboard as much as possible, and wish this one offered that as well.

That said, for simple note name drilling, this game has a great theme that makes it fun to play, and it really encourages quick, accurate note name recognition for music students. And it's only $0.99! If you would like to try it out at home, you can find Staff Wars on the App Store  or Staff Wars on Google Play .